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Dec 26

Christmassy, Christmassier, Christmassiest

Posted on Sunday, December 26, 2010 in Misspelled words

Was your Christmas Christmassy?

Was it Christmassier than previous Christmases?

Was it the Christmassiest one so far?

Dec 22

End these with “ward”, not “word”

Posted on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 in Misspelled words

These words sound like they should end with word but their correct spelling ends with ward.

Awkward, afterward, backward, coward, downward, forward, homeward, inward, onward, upward and westward.

Nov 17

Did you study for all the quizzes?

Posted on Wednesday, November 17, 2010 in Misspelled words

quiz, quizzes
quizzable
quizzed
quizzer, quizzers
quizzical
quizzicality, quizzicalities
quiuzzically
quizzicalness
quizzing
quizzism

Nov 15

Better tweak that grammar a little

Posted on Monday, November 15, 2010 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words

tweak means a slight adjustment
He tweaked the controls to bring in a better signal

tweek is not a word

Nov 14

I’ve been racking my brain on this one

Posted on Sunday, November 14, 2010 in Misspelled words

nerve-racking means intensely distressing or irritating to the nerves

It is not recking, wracking or wrecking.

It comes from the medieval torture instrument called the rack.

For more details, visit The Mavens’ Word of the Day.

Nov 13

A bow hunter must be a stalker to be successful

Posted on Saturday, November 13, 2010 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words

to stalk means to sneak up on something or follow someone constantly
He would stalk his victims for weeks.

to stock means to fill grocery store shelves with products
He would stock the shelves at night.

Nov 5

This is the real McCoy

Posted on Friday, November 5, 2010 in Misspelled words

The real McCoy means the real thing.

It appears to have originally been the real McKay in Scotland. It was used to refer to G Mackay & Co Ltd’s whisky.

Click here for more details.

Nov 2

If you don’t vote, don’t complain!

Posted on Tuesday, November 2, 2010 in Misspelled words

Easily misspelled election terms:

campaign
candidate
caucus
constituency
constituent
delegate
federal
gubernatorial
incumbent
independent
partisan
precinct
rhetoric

Oct 31

It is spooky to not spell Halloween words correctly

Posted on Sunday, October 31, 2010 in Misspelled words

ghost, not gost (silent h)

witch, not which

pumpkin, not pumkin

skeleton, not skelton

cemetery, not cemetary

frightening, not frightning

jack o’ lantern with the apostrophe replacing the letter f

tombstone, not toombstone

werewolf, not wherewolf

Oct 4

Did someone say no one showed up?

Posted on Monday, October 4, 2010 in Incorrect word usage, Misspelled words

anyone means any person

everyone means every person

someone means some person

no one means not one person

Note that no one is two words, unlike the other three.

There is more information in this previous post.